#i am not mad or upset i am genuinely bemused here is this your first day on the great information superhighway. the world wide web

[utilitycaster]

hi! where is everyone rewatching? are the early episodes of c2 on Beacon? they've always been locked on Twitch behind G&S - is that still the case?

...they are on youtube. along with. every single other episode of critical role.

[minervajeanlupin]

Extras

Summary: Bruce and Tony are extras in a movie and they meet each other. That's basically it.

Word Count: 1627

Author’s note: This is my first time writing about science bros, so please let me know what you think!

Bruce sighed, taking off his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose tiredly. He stood in the corner of the room awkwardly, hoping no one would notice him or try to make conversation. Luckily, no one did.

He caught his friend Natasha’s eye and she smiled at him. ‘You okay?’ She mouthed. He smiled back, though he was still mad at her for dragging him to this. ‘Yeah.’ He mouthed back, though he wasn’t. He didn’t want to be here.

They were on a movie set. Natasha was the bodyguard of some important actor- Bruce didn’t know who, though to be fair, he didn’t know a lot of famous people. Natasha had asked him to be an extra for this movie, complaining about how much time it took to screen people to make sure they weren’t secretly out to kill the actor, and Bruce of course agreed. Because no one, no one, said no to Natasha.

Which is why he was here. Suffering silently near a crowd of people when he could have been doing research at home.

“Okay, extra 2 and 3, go to the table at the back and start talking quietly.” The director called. That was him. Extra 3.

He made his way to the table, mentally preparing himself for the awkwardness that was sure to ensue when he was forced to make small talk with a stranger.

Sitting at the table was a man with brown hair. He was good looking, Bruce would admit, which did not help in any way. He sat down at the table. The man was ignoring him and scribbling something down on the napkin in front of him. Bruce looked at his plate laden with food awkwardly, unsure of what to do. The food was fake. Turns out movies, just like most things in life, were full of lies.

The man grumbled under his breath about something, then threw the napkin down, looking annoyed.

“Can I see?” Bruce asked, curious about what was making him so upset. The man looked up, seeming to only notice now that there was someone sitting in front of him.

“Sure.” He said, handing the napkin to Bruce with a dubious glance. Bruce looked at the paper. There was a complicated equation written down and the man seemed to be trying and failing to solve it, judging by the number of cross-outs and scribbles on the paper. Bruce quickly took out a pen. Feeling the man’s eyes on him, he quickly solved the equation and handing the napkin back to the man. The man took it and looked at it with narrowed eyes. There was silence.

“What the fuck?!” The man yelled. Bruce shrunk back in his seat as everyone turned to face the two of them. Natasha looked at him with raised eyebrows.

“Please be quiet.” The director said, annoyed.

The man gave him a defiant stare but nodded. Everyone else went back to filming.

“What the fuck?” The man said quieter, staring at Bruce. “How did you do that? Who are you?” Bruce stuck out his hand.

“I’m Bruce.” The man shook it, looking slightly awed.

“Dr. Bruce Banner? The physicist?” The man asked excitedly. Bruce nodded, surprised that someone knew who he was.

“It’s an honor to meet you.” The man said sincerely with a big smile on his face. Bruce smiled back. It had been a while since someone had that reaction when they found out who he was.

“So who are you?” He asked politely. The man stared at him, bemused.

“You really don’t know?” Bruce shook his head.

“I’m Tony Stark.” Bruce knew his surprise must have been evident on his face as the man chuckled.

“Yeah, that’s usually the reaction.” He said. Bruce felt faint. He had been talking to Tony Stark. He had helped Tony Stark solve a math problem! He shook his head, trying to get his thoughts clear.

“Table in the back, stop attracting so much attention!” The director said, sounding significantly more annoyed.

“You should come down to my lab sometime!” Tony-fucking-Stark said.

“Maybe we should have this conversation later, I’m pretty sure the director is very close to kicking us off the set.” Bruce said, glancing at the director who was still glaring at them. Tony rolled his eyes.

“He won’t kick me off, I’m too important. Besides, I didn’t want to do this, Pepper forced me too.” Ah, Pepper must be Ms. Potts, the one who had to constantly work to make sure Tony’s public image wasn’t completely tarnished. Bruce felt a little sorry for her.

“Still, maybe we should be a little quieter. We don’t want to take away attention from them.” He said, nodding to the couple being filmed, who were just professing their love for each other.

Tony snorted. “I can take away attention from that couple just by sitting here.” He said. Bruce couldn’t resist a smile.

“True.” He said. Tony flashed him a surprised smile, and Bruce felt his heart flutter a little. What? He was attractive, after all. Sue him.

“Are you single Bruce?” Tony asked. Bruce felt himself blush a little. This could not be possible. Tony Stark could not possibly be flirting with him.

“On a first name basis now, are we?” He asked, purposely deflecting the question. A look from the man across from him let him know that Tony knew exactly what he was doing. Ah, the setbacks of talking to someone as smart as you.

“I would say we are.” Tony responded lightly. “And since you didn’t answer the question, I’m going to assume you are, and now as you out on a date.” Bruce sighed.

“Tony… I’m flattered, I really am, but someone like me shouldn’t date.”

“Why not?” Tony countered. “I’m an incredibly persistent man, Dr. Banner.”

“I have… issues.” Bruce said delicately. “I have problems with anger management.” Tony gave him an incredulous look.

“You think I care about any of that?” He asked. “Because I really don’t. I have many, many problems too you know.” Bruce felt a rush of anger and tried him best to control it.

“I nearly killed a man.” He hissed. “I got mad and started punching my old professor. I couldn’t stop. He nearly died.”

“Did he deserve it?” Tony asked calmly.

“Well, I guess so- but that isn’t the point!” Bruce said, frustrated, not being able to understand why Tony wasn’t freaking out. Why wasn’t he scared of Bruce? Everyone he knew was afraid of Bruce when they found out!

“What did he do?” Tony asked, looking genuinely curious. Bruce took a deep breath and counted to ten. When he was sufficiently calmer, he opened his eyes.

“I proved a theory he was famous for was wrong, so he said that I’d cheated on all my exams and failed me.” Bruce said quietly. No one, not even Natasha or any of his other friends knew about this, but he had just told Tony Stark, who was famous for saying things he wasn’t meant to, his biggest secret.

Tony didn’t say anything for a while and Bruce finally looked up at him when the silence had stretched on for too long. He was a little shocked. Tony’s eyes were blazing with anger.

“Do you want me to sue this guy?” Tony asked in a quiet voice laden with fury. “Because I can.”

“No, no it’s fine.” Bruce assured hurriedly. He wasn’t one to hold grudges and besides, the man had suffered enough, nearly dying at the hands of one of his students.

“Okay, if you’re sure.” Tony responded. There was silence again. Bruce looked at the set, not really focusing on anything. He could feel Tony’s eyes on him.

“So.” Tony said again. “Will you go out with me?” Bruce shook his head, a little amused. He thought Tony would have let that go, but he was right: he was incredibly persistent.

“Why would you want to go out with me anyway?” He asked.

“Well, for one, you’re very good looking, you have that rumpled professor look going for you. Not to mention, you’re one of the smartest people in the world- which I find insanely attractive. Plus I think we have great chemistry.” Tony responded immediately. Bruce raised an eyebrow.

“And how do you know we have great chemistry?”

“Well, I’m not entirely sure if we do, but I’ll have to test my hypothesis first to make sure.” Tony said with a grin. His eyes flickered to Bruce’s lips. Bruce felt a thrill go down his spine.

“Experiment away.” He said in almost a whisper. They leaned forward at exactly the same time.

It was incredible. The second their lips met, fireworks went off in Bruce’s head. He closed his eyes and everything around him was blocked out, except for Tony. He could hear the director yelling at them again and someone, probably Clint, Natasha’s boyfriend and stunt double to one of the actors, was wolf-whistling. But he didn’t care.

The two of them let go of each other only when they ran out of breath.

“So.” Bruce asked, slightly breathless. “Was your hypothesis correct?” Tony grinned.

“Hm, I think I need to test it again.” He leaned forward again, but was interrupted by the director, who stormed over to them.

“What are you two doing?” He seethed. Tony got up and the director shrinked away slightly, remembering who he was talking to.

“Leaving.” Tony said, holding Bruce’s hand. As they walked past Natasha, she raised an eyebrow at Bruce and he smiled.

“Won’t Pepper get mad at you?” Bruce asked once they were out of the movie set. Tony shrugged.

“It’ll be fine. Besides-” He leaned over to kiss Bruce again, “-I’d rather spend time with you.”

[landofsomethingsomething]

your askbox seems crowded with johnroxycallie asks today. welllll sorry im going to add another one to the pile! i am intrigued! i used to ship johnroxy because it seemed real & cute but i moved to roxycallie when it was canon. but this is interesting?? sooo im interested but not sold. give me your best sales pitch for this new ot3 and adopt me into that good good 4 person fold?

Okay here’s why I like it.

To start you have to understand my salty relationship with Roxy’s bisexuality. I basically wrote my own god damn narrative for it in my own head because I am just so over homestuck’s completely unwillingness to give women arcs relating to their sexuality. Womens’ queerness is always something treated by the narrative as obvious and unworthy of commentary or exploration or any element of revelation/self-discovery or even an iota of reflection or struggle, which is especially FRUSTRATING when they’ve been shown struggling with the queerness of OTHERS. It’s that last part that gets me w Roxy -- I especially hate this with Roxy specifically because her relationship with Dirk was so very fucking fraught with her being bitter at him for being gay and thus unwilling to be with her. Roxy was aggressive about her attraction to Jake and Dirk and I would have really liked to see SOMETHING about like. The narrative there after she meets Callie, especially when Callie expressly tells Roxy that her species can’t experience human romance and blah blah blah blah there are so many things I would have loved to know more about re Roxy and her sexuality but this post is already going to be long so enough said about how mad I am about this specifically

The way I’ve settled on it for my own peace of mind is that Roxy went after Dirk and Jake most aggressively because she had the “save the human species” thing held up as the banner of like, the most important thing she could do to the exclusion of most else. Couple that with her being upset at Dirk for being gay and you get a workable explanation for her suppressing her own bisexuality and being so exuberantly performatively straight. 

So. Callie is the only person outside the other alpha kids that Roxy has had this lifelong close relationship/bond with. They have a conversation where they basically gal pal each other aggressively, with Callie saying her species can’t do redrom/human romance and Roxy being cagey about whether she’d reciprocate because Callie is basically telling her there’s no point to the thought exercise and who likes rejection?? but Roxy is the one who brings it up and is clearly fishing to see if Callie likes her likes her and blah blah blah people have been shipping RoxyCallie long before credits video because of all this, the ring, etc. The closeness of their relationship and the mutual “if only this could work it could be so good” narrative there like all right. 

Then, John. There’s an element to Roxy’s attraction to John that’s rooted in that instinctive thing she has going on that you can see on display in their first meeting, where she sees A Dude and immediately does her mental calculus to determine hey here is A Dude, he’s kind of cute, he’s maybe not gay and/or off-limits b/c my best friend has a huge messy crush on him. And it would be real easy to weigh the scales here and go full RoxyCallie if that were the sum and parts of their relationship, but like, here’s the thing -- it’s not. 

I just cannot let go of John and Roxy as the sole survivors of the Game Over timeline. Roxy is Callie’s beacon of optimistic hope, Roxy is the one who acts to save Callie and preserve her in the alpha timeline (with John’s help -- John gives Roxy the ring after all. I like that detail in the full scope of them being a Unit in the future.) But JOHN plays that role for Roxy. Roxy watches Rose die and is ready to sit down and throw in the towel. She tells John straight up that her only plan going forward after this is to accept her fate and bury her mom and wait for her miserable doomed timeline to end and take her with it. John is the one who convinces her there might be a better way, there might be hope. JOHN is the one who acts to preserve Roxy’s existence in the alpha timeline. I really love the parallel between Roxy bringing Callie back from the brink of oblivion and John bringing Roxy back from the same via the same mechanism that allows John to get the ring that allows Roxy to bring Callie back in the first place. That is a really tidy loop and I like it a lot.

So, Roxy in Earth C with a boy she likes and has a connection with that literally no one else can understand because no one else went through Game Over, no one else has this dissonant experiences that might not mesh 100% with the people they love, no one else has this potential imposter syndrome. I love the idea of Roxy and John bonding over that and have never really been willing to give it up. I love the idea of Roxy coming to understand that her infatuation with the idea of A Boy, Any Boy and the future she wanted so bad were products of trauma and really examining that and then realizing she fell for John legitimately, that she genuinely finds him charming

Simultaneously, Roxy in Earth C with the alien girl she’s had a crush on for like probably forever, and now she’s free of the burden she always assumed she had to repopulate the human race. Also her entire family is queer and she’s free to explore her own feelings with that context. Maybe to accept that her feelings for Jane were never purely platonic (and her feelings for Callie certainly never were) and half her frustration at Dirk was that he insisted on being “true” to himself while Roxy never felt she could be and imposed straightness on herself out of obligation to the human race. That could make a girl bitter, right? (I have so many god damn feelings about Roxy and Dirk reconciling post-canon)

And here’s Callie with her insistence that cherubs can’t experience redrom, too. Except now she’s living on Earth C with, for example, Karkat, a troll who absolutely experiences romantic feelings the same way humans do despite all his species lore stating Trolls Can’t Feel Like That. And now Callie has eternity to explore HER feelings -- and we know part of why Callie just accepted that she couldn’t experience flushed/human romance is because she didn’t think anyone would ever love her like that anyway, right? She thought she was hideous and unloveable. Well now she’s here on Earth C and there’s no way Roxy is going to go on letting her believe that. And without that holding her back from exploring the way she REALLY feels, you can see a path to Callie allowing herself to experience emotions she never thought she could. 

And all of these are positive things and wonderful things for these people to learn about themselves and about each other. 

Roxy caught between the boy she fell for on her journey and the girl she fell for long before her journey even started, just having this realization like, everyone is doing what they want here, this is our universe and our earth and our society and our rules, and she’s kind of unofficially dating them both for awhile but not committing labels-wise to either until eventually she’s just like fuck it??? Here’s how I feel, now how about you??? And I cannot imagine Callie protesting Roxy loving them both or someone else loving Roxy as much as she does, and John’s relationship with romance throughout Homestuck is so bemused and ???? and exploratory, I imagine he’s like well this is kinda weird is this like a troll thing and Roxy is like no this is just an us thing and they deal with it

John and Callie have already been spending tons of time with each other throughout and again, as I referenced in an earlier post, there’s some initial awkwardness that settles out into a balanced arrangement and Callie and John both love Roxy and care about each other very much.

Also like, until there actually is some kind of epilogue that does more with John’s current depression arc and ties in the Masterpiece with everything, I like this alternate reality where John has someone who understands him in a way really no one else can there for him when his shit starts to go south, I like the idea of there being an entire long ass subplot where John tries to isolate himself and Roxy is instrumental in not allowing that to happen, I like Callie’s cheer in the face of her own blisteringly unforgiving history and reality being an inspiration for John, I like a lot of things that canon as it stands doesn’t have a satisfying character-driven arc for at the moment.

And, you know, to cap all this off, I really just like JohnRoxyCallie as an acknowledgement that bisexual woman are not “less” for liking boys, that bisexual woman don’t “count” unless they are exclusively with women, and that bisexual people in real life who ship bisexual characters with people of opposite/other genders are not somehow betraying the queer community by doing so, while simultaneously not sacrificing a potential f/f romance for a m/f one.

The LGBT community’s relationship with bisexual women is MY pet issue, because obviously I’m a bi woman, and there’s obviously an element of that going on as well. It bothers me with the treatment of a lot of fandom/homestuck’s bisexual women (this frenzy by queer fandom to erase every relationship a bisexual woman ever had with a man as being not real or not valid for x, y, z reasons while Straight Fandom is over there doing the same thing, but opposite) but Roxy is by far the Homestuck Canon Bisexual Woman I personally care about the most so SHRUG that’s why you get a million words of my feelings

Anyway that’s why I like them